Labour will force a Commons vote over its plan for the independent budget watchdog to scrutinise parties' tax and spending plans ahead of the next election.

Ed Miliband's party has been pushing for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to be given the power to scrutinise manifesto commitments from opposition parties.

It will challenge Chancellor George Osborne to accept the proposal in the Commons on Wednesday.

The head of the OBR, Robert Chote, backed calls for it to cost the main parties' manifestos when he gave evidence to the Treasury Select Committee in March.

But he warned that there were "significant practical issues" with the idea, and admitted that Mr Osborne was against introducing it for next year's general election.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "In tough times it's even more important that the policies of all the parties are properly costed and funded. People rightly want to know that the sums add up.

"That's why I want every spending and tax measure in Labour's manifesto to be independently audited by the Office for Budget Responsibility. And I believe the Tories and Lib Dems should be willing to subject their manifestos to independent scrutiny too.

"But to give the OBR the legal power to do this before the next election we need cross-party support for my proposal.

"This policy has already won the support of some Conservative and Lib Dem MPs. George Osborne used to say he was interested in this idea. But now that the election is approaching he seems to be resisting it.

"Robert Chote has said cross-party agreement would be needed by the early summer to do this for next year's manifestos.

"This week's debate is George Osborne's last chance to stop blocking this important reform. I hope he will change his mind and do the right thing."

Comments (3)

If you want take Britain back 20 years, send our boys and girls in to bloody wars just for ego, sell off whatever gold we have left and have a senior member of the cabinet who openly supports the raping of babies and young children just to better their vile career, then please vote Labour.

If you want take Britain back 20 years, send our boys and girls in to bloody wars just for ego, sell off whatever gold we have left and have a senior member of the cabinet who openly supports the raping of babies and young children just to better their vile career, then please vote Labour.NathanAdler

Another knock on effect from Labours Mass Immigration program and the lack of this Governments boarder Control....

Lily Dove has used her GP practice for so long that she remembers when the doctor would visit on a horse and trap.
Now the 95-year-old great-grandmother is being removed from its register because so many newcomers have moved into the area.
Some 1,500 people are being taken off the database by the medical practice in Watton, Norfolk, which has struggled to recruit enough new GPs to cope with the market town’s rapidly growing population – many of them Eastern Europeans.
Mrs Dove was shocked and upset to be told she would be ‘de-registered’ within a fortnight and would have to move to a different clinic.
When she complained she was told no exception could be made for her because it would be ‘discriminatory’
.
Mrs Dove, a widow from the nearby village of Ashill, has lived in the area since her birth in January 1919.
She suffers from a number of health problems, and now fears that her failing eyesight means it would be dangerous for her to start using an unfamiliar surgery in the next nearest town, Swaffham.
She said: ‘I am deteriorating a bit. Life is difficult enough without having to change my doctor.’
Mrs Dove lived for 88 years on an arable farm in the village of Stow Bedon, which was run first by her father John, then by her husband Ellis, and finally by her son John:....

Another knock on effect from Labours Mass Immigration program and the lack of this Governments boarder Control....
Lily Dove has used her GP practice for so long that she remembers when the doctor would visit on a horse and trap.
Now the 95-year-old great-grandmother is being removed from its register because so many newcomers have moved into the area.
Some 1,500 people are being taken off the database by the medical practice in Watton, Norfolk, which has struggled to recruit enough new GPs to cope with the market town’s rapidly growing population – many of them Eastern Europeans.
Mrs Dove was shocked and upset to be told she would be ‘de-registered’ within a fortnight and would have to move to a different clinic.
When she complained she was told no exception could be made for her because it would be ‘discriminatory’
.
Mrs Dove, a widow from the nearby village of Ashill, has lived in the area since her birth in January 1919.
She suffers from a number of health problems, and now fears that her failing eyesight means it would be dangerous for her to start using an unfamiliar surgery in the next nearest town, Swaffham.
She said: ‘I am deteriorating a bit. Life is difficult enough without having to change my doctor.’
Mrs Dove lived for 88 years on an arable farm in the village of Stow Bedon, which was run first by her father John, then by her husband Ellis, and finally by her son John:....welshmen

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